itarumaa

Ok, this morning I did what Royt adviced and no problems. I started the car and went from P->2 and then D, no problems today. it was -14 degrees.

1998 Ls, 170k miles. Maybe it is just too cold for the car:) I do drive it everyday and recently temperature have been around -14 to -22.

Hi, does anyone have a clue why my Lexus LS does not move easily in the mornings, for instance this morning it was -14 and the car starts and runs fine, but when I put it in D then it hesitates a lot. It feels bit like a traction control that kiks back all the time, maybe the gearbox is slipping? Then after 50 meters and when I raise the revs over 1500 rpm the problem goes away.

My only car is Ls400 here in Finland and I use it summer time and winter time as well. The car is RHD as well, the coldest that I have been driving the car was -27 :) Not a easy car to drive in the winter tough.

Great news, the local locksmith was able to create a new key to my car and even better is that it works. It does start the car and I can open and lock the door manually without triggering the alarm. So now I can use the key from ebay as wireless function and the new key to start the car and master key I can leave as spare key.

There are actually two different items in the key integrated under a plastic cover (chip). First one gives the signal to the car to open and close the doors, but second one gives the signal to the immobiliser to actually start the car. And now the second chip does not match with the master key. Therefore I can program the key to open the doors but I cannot program the another chip to start the car.

Ok, so I went to the local locksmith and they said that the keys do not match with the master key and secondary key. They were able to order me a new key, it will not have a remote function but it should start the car. So then I can use the another key to open the doors and another to start the car, good enouh to me :) And will also have existing master key as a back up.

My master key has dot in lock button, but no triangle in unlock button, same with the new key. Both are 3 button keys. I think I will change the battery to master key and try again. I have tried both method 1 & 2 from the link cruisemark posted. I think this is the method to program the key to the ecu.

I have 1998 LS400 and I bought a new key from Ebay. Now when I tried to program the key to the car, wireless part was no problem but actually to be able to start the car with the new key, no luck. I followed instructions from service manual but still nothing. When I enter to to the programming mode, the security light blinks once and after that nothing. Even I wait for 2-3 minutes, the key does not get programmed but also the security light does not blink more than once. If I stop the programming sequence, then when entering the new key to the ignition, security light blinks and if I enter the master key, security light stops blinking. But what is so strange here is that the new keys opens the doors without any errors. Does anyone know why in programming mode the light only blinks once, since it is supposed to be doing blinking all the time untill key is programmed.

For the rear discs and pads I went to Mintex, since the price is quite cheap, a bit over 100e for pads and discs delivered to Finland, sent from UK. That Is really good value. For the front pads. I had similar noise problem and I tried a quite much everything. I have Brembo discs in front and I changed pad type twice, first one was Mintex, second one Fedora(?) but no luck. I even bought a fitting kit from Toyota (50 euro, a rip off) and nothing helped. Then I went and bought copper paste and added that by myself and finally I had quiet brakes. That fix lasted a year so I readded the copper paste and brakes are quiet again. In MOT test this year brakes were 100% and they both have excactly same braking values in the front, so this squealing is not from stuck caliper etc.

What happens if you turn the key? At least in my car if the immobilazer is on, the engine will turn over but will not start.

Motor tax was the reason why I did buy my LS400 from Ireland and drove it to Finland. The tax was madness so price was cheap, about 2000e compared to Finnish price 12000e. But if I would be (still) living in Ireland I would go and buy LS430 since they are quite cheap too and timing belt alone can cost 1000e if you have to pay someone to do the work + parts of course. And definitely in Ireland they should be buyers market for these cars, so even LS430 should be relatively cheap.

36mpg is my best record when driving 500km, speeds were between 80-100km/h. Not too bad :) And with cruise control all the way.

I did test my LS400 from 1998 model year against Mercedes-Benz W201. The MB had 5-cylinder diesel engine and a turbocharger from a truck, about 300hp and lot of black smoke. First 200 meters there was no difference between the cars, finally after 200 meters MB started to go past my LS. I was suprised since the MB felt really rough when I was sitting next to the driver later on. This was in closed airport track btw.

My friend used to own Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow 1972 model and I did take it for a test drive. It does have a feel that Ls400 just cannot reach, it feels much more a special Luxury car compared to LS400 from year 1998. LS400 is great car but ... :) Eventually tough my friend get rid of the car and changed it to 1950 Chevy and then again to HD-bike. I think he realized that keeping the Rolls in the road is just way too expensive. 18mpg in the longer runs, in the city about 9-10mpg and parts are really expensive as well.

So, if there is only one suspension set up (non-air) I think I could just go and buy the springs and hope they will fit.

Hi, I have a Ls400, year 1998 that I bought from Ireland, now the car is in Finland. The right-rear spring is broken so I need to replace them both. But what are the specs for Irish Ls400 with normal suspension? I might buy the parts either from Finland or Germany, but how do I know what suspension setup in Ireland is the same than in Finland, specially since all the finnish cars have air suspension as standard.

I haven´t done anything else for this since the car runs fine, except the co-drivers door. But I did lock it with the key so it is ok. When summer arrives (-13 now) maybe I look the problem again.

Ok, everything else now works except the co-drivers door. It does not lock with the remote, but stays open. Then when I use my key to lock it, it stays locked even the rest of the doors are open. Any ideas?

Ok, after the reset things are better, no more brake wear light and also the drivers door seems to be starting to work as well, so locks-unlocks from the remote, I am not 100% sure about the co-drivers door, have to test that again. Brake fluid level is ok.

Hello, I took my Ls400 back to the road and I seem to have some strange issues, firstly the brake wear light goes on and off, now the car has new rear pads from 2011 and new front pads from 2012, also one of the sensors have been soldered, so I am quite puzzled why the light goes on and off. Second problem is that car does not lock it self, first it was the co-drivers door, now the drivers door. It does try to lock the doors, but even the rear doors are locked after using the remote, the front ones are not. Then I have to use the key to lock them and reopen them. Now I think I will do a battery reset for the car and check the minus and plus connections, but would there be something else that I could think of? I did not drive the car for 4 months, so maybe these issues are caused from that.

For the the parts including waterpump were around 420 euro and work was about 550 euro but that included coolant leak repair as well. It took one person whole day to change the timing belt, actually the whole service station service was reserved to my car only :)

Last year I tested this in Finland, the coldest was -27 and my LS does not have a block heater so not the best for the car to start it up in cold every day, but every day it did start without any problems. And even in -27 the car was fine to drive, no problems with gearbox or any extra noise from the cabin. The lack of steering feel makes the driving a bit tricky and if you use the normal mode in the gearbox you might be not so nicely surprised when gearbox decides to change to lower gear. It did happen to me when I was accelerating to motorway and gearbox did change to lower gear in speed of 90km/h. The whole car went sideways right away, but I was able to correct it. VSC was on, but still the car went sideways. Therefore using a snow mode is recommended because it does not change to lower gear so eagerly than normal mode. Biggest problem with the LS is lack of grip in the rear and lack of steering feel, what makes the car a bit problematic to drive in snow / ice covered country roads. Also if you have to be extra careful with the throttle. I have to admit that my parents Nissan Qashqai with studded tires are much easier to drive in the winter than LS fitted with friction winter tires.

This advice worked at least on 1998 Lexus Ls400. The main thing to know is to use add mode, also it is really important to be fast, specially after the lock-unlock procedure with the door. Also you have to do the lock-unlock procedure 10 times, so first when the car door is open and unlocked, you select LOCK-UNLOCK so you do them both and count them at once, so there will be 5 times of LOCK and 5 times of UNLOCK. Then you add the key to the ignition, put it from LOCK-ON-LOCK. You have to be fast on this one, if you wait that stearing wheel lovers down you are too late. And right after this you have 1.5 seconds to press the lock-unlock buttons in the remote, then right after that you have to press either lock or unlock button. That is the major thing to understand, how fast you actually have to be. I cannot understand why Lexus tought that the key system in the car is a good one, because I think it is worst system ever, if you loose the master key and have no replacement you are in serious trouble. Hope this advice helps someone, it was -10 when I was doing this, not fun but hey now the car works again :) avain_lexus.pdf

Well I was able to fix both keys so I can now start the car with both keys. only problem is that key fob does not lock/unlock the doors so I have to use keys, both of them do work tough. I did use instructions above, no luck.